The Ladydrawers in the Reader

Thanks to the Chicago Reader, who wrote up a preview of SEX. MONEY. RACE. GENDER. The Ladydrawers (of Chicago, Ill.) last week.

Essentially any stereotype, loophole, prejudice, economic condition, or unwritten rule that can inhibit someone from joining the cultural conversation because of their gender, sexual orientation, race, or economic status is in their line of fire.

The preview includes a quick overview of our very own Delia Jean and her July 18 workshop, Life and Labor.

The collective will also hold workshops in the gallery space—an “experimental-pedagogical” series designed to raise participants’ awareness of the social conditions they live in. Life and Labor, for instance, a workshop led by journalist Sarah Jaffe and cartoonist Delia Jean Hickey, will explore the emotional toll of working in the service industry.

Hickey worked for years as a waitress at Miller’s Pub in the Loop, and used the experience in her comic book series Station in Life (she’ll also be the one hula hooping on opening night). She wanted to look at the impact of “reducing your own status to elevate that of the person you’re serving” on a daily basis, and the drain that has on people’s lives. “You’re stuffed into these emotional circumstances where you’re required to act a certain way,” she says. “What sort of impact does that have on your sense of self or being?”